It is a shortcut for the imagination. (For people less trained, for example) From there it may be easier / quicker to understand how all this works. From an educational point of view it may therefore be useful.
A fundamental restriction of our mind is that it's all about shapes. The atom is where we meet a shapeless thing for the first time - the electron - and I think this is why all attempts to explain electron orbitals resort to nondescript formulas.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 25.1 ms ] threadIt helps with molecules as well: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/molecular-morphing
I wish it were a more common render option though…